ocrats running for President. Occasion- ally; though, she veers off in a direction of her own. One afternoon in the spring, I went to hear Clinton give a speech to a group of nurses at Roosevelt Hospital, in Manhattan. "You know, some of us need more help and guidance and support than others," Clinton told them. "Some of us are born healthy and others are not. Some of us have traumatic, terri- ble accidents or events or diseases that affect us. None of us know what will happen to any of us tomorrow, and there- fore I think we are all bound together in a web of relationships where we do- not only for religious reasons or moral reasons but practical reasons-have an obligation and opportunity to support th " one ano ere Clinton went on to say that she was worried that the nation's priorities were "getting misplaced." She emphasized the importance of sacrifice-"I think that's what makes a stronger country"-and introduced the concept of "future pref- erence," under which tomorrow takes 1,. }J . .- " 1; : ;;;' t . ," ...,.:,."" ,:., " "",,, /'../'\1 ;'\ , -} .t:; '::: :: .i : . : ] ... .. ...-: ...;" : ;. ... .". X: .:" < l ,f. . _ ... .. - - . Y.' .. -. ,."" 'f .. r' I' - _. :..:&t: q, t tJl' . ;$,: ,'; ; !. i/ " . if . .", .". _;.:' J.-". .Jft?: r- '. . :;/_,.<-,: :: iié '" ,,'é : . J . . ' ..:...../i**--::. "" to check out I couldn't find my room key. Mer rummaging under the bed and through my suitcase, I still couldn't find it, so I told the man at the desk that I was sorry, but I had to go because I had an appointment to interview Hillary Clin- ton. He asked if I meant the Hillary Clinton, and I said yes. "Now, don't get all nervous and com- .. " h ld " J b ]f " peD Dve, e to me. ust e yourse . By Clinton's reckoning, "millions of words" have been written about her; her memoir adds another two hundred thousand to the total. Even the best and most exhaustive of these accounts seem somehow incomplete-and this is cer- tainly true of "Living Histo " One of Clinton's own pieces of campaign litera- ture from the Senate race put the prob- lem this way: "We know everything- and nothing-about her." In our first conversation, I tried to talk to Clinton about how her life had changed since she left the White House. A friend of hers had told me that she thought Clinton felt "liberated" by having her own political office. I asked Clinton if it was true. "I wouldn't use that," she said. "You know, before Bill ran for President I had my own office, I had my own job." She went on to say; "There's noth- ing comparable to being First Lad)!. It's not a job; it's a role or a position. It is remade every time someone :fills it, because of the election, up until now, of a husband as President. "It was a hard adjustment for me," she said. "So for me this is more like a return to what I had done before those eight years. It has a definition; it has responsibilities. There are certain things you are ex- pected to do. You do them to the best of your ability. So I'm very comfortable having this job, which it is. It's a job. The other is not." I asked her how her views had changed since she moved from the White House to the Senate. "I feel like I've been re- ally lucky to have those differ- ent perspectives, because it has informed my understanding of a lot of issues and how to ap- precedence over toda)!. By the end of her speech, she was calling into question that most basic of American values- self-reliance. "I hope we don't forget that the idea of the rugged individ- ual is a great idea for films, for books, but there are very few people who go through life without needing anyone, without having to make any sacrifice for anyone else," she said. "In fact, it's kind of an impoverished life, if that's the attitude." At the same event, Clinton referred to the hospital's interim president. "I like the name 'interim president,' " she said. " I li L th ,. d ' b " K.e e name pres! ent even etter. A s it happened, I was supposed to interview Clinton the day after the item on her Presidential plans appeared in the Drudge Report. The interview, the second of two that she agreed to, was scheduled to take place in her car, during a drive from the town of Skaneateles to the New York State Fair, just outside Syracuse. I spent the night before the in- terview in a hotel, and when I was about ttr . "d' . :;: :1 '-1: Sf. . 1 1::;': I "'l _. .l'!S.t - q;, , .' , .}At ' : .1,; ;t ow U: . .'fih ;", _0<"; .:..... , :{t, ),c ij"' :;' . ft . ....,...". "" ..'-'" '. '0.. .',....,;.. " u .1- '.". t.,.. , i," /"" uu. . '. ..,' r$.. . ,< ' fi<:;. '. . ',"':': ., \ . ) '"ô ' ' '):' . '..:' ' "'. ; ;;:-'":-1:5:':" -:"." .. .0-. ;;;; . =-<. * /J:" ,v ' ;""""'íh'")liï" J ,. ..,.c. ). , ": ,', .Y" \4t; . . IMf.".F' , ... ... .-.. :. ... ø" .%3; '-\(,", . :,:., :. .<;>,, r,' fg;<: m" * "". .."")-.. . . _ ."W: ,:. "'" - "::- <6 . *. t k. .r: <. .;t;..... ..:): )<:."". ÆJ/, ! ' ;., . l:- :C: ...... ..{!# - ,'". ',,,. :."', .: , ,c:s:fk> :..f: .._...:'J;. ". . .0. :.:... . -..:e1: >>.::. :.'. :: ,: '1' ; ''Don't you remember me? During the blackout we slept on the same sidewalk. "